Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T10:30:06.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Measles and Scarlet Fever Epidemic Synergy and Evolving Pathogenic Virulence in Victoria, Australia, 1853–1916

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2020

Phillip M. Roberts  and
Heather T. Battles Open the ORCID record for Heather T. Battles [Opens in a new window]
Phillip M. Roberts
Affiliation:
School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Heather T. Battles*
Affiliation:
Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
*
Email: h.battles@auckland.ac.nz
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Four synchronous epidemics of measles and scarlet fever are observed in the historical data collected by colonial authorities in Victoria, Australia from 1853 to 1876, suggesting some sort of synergistic relationship between the two diseases. While epidemics of measles, as recorded by the colonial record keepers, still occurred during the remainder of the study period (until 1916), no further epidemics of scarlet fever occurred after 1876. This is suggestive of a change in Victoria’s disease ecology in the late 1870s. After analysis of the historical data for potential artifactual cases, it does not appear to be the result of confusion in diagnosis and changes in case definitions do not appear to have affected reporting of the causes of death. We conclude that the most likely explanation for the observed pattern is an epidemic synergy that ended after the 1876 epidemic. We hypothesize that this synergistic relationship between measles and scarlet fever in mid-nineteenth-century Victoria ended due to a shift in the dominant group A streptococci (GAS) M-type or the loss of a GAS bacteriophage. Support for this hypothesis comes from observations that other diagnoses associated with group A strep infections also changed their mortality profiles during the 1870s, particularly “Bright’s disease,” a possible descriptor of post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis. We situate the emergence and end of this pattern within the demographic and socioeconomic conditions of the Victorian gold-mining boom in the 1850s to 1870s and postboom changes in fertility, mortality, and housing infrastructure, highlighting the importance of social conditions in disease evolution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , Spring 2021 , pp. 187 - 217
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Social Science History Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aaby, P. (1991) “Determinants of measles mortality: Host or transmission factors?,” in Maza, L. and Peterson, E. (eds.) Medical Virology 10. Plenum Press: 83–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aitken, W. (1864) The Science and Practice of Medicine. Charles Griffin and Company.Google Scholar
Alizon, S. (2013a) “Co-infection and super-infection models in evolutionary epidemiology.” Interface Focus 3 (6): 1–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alizon, S. (2013b) “Parasite co-transmission and the evolutionary epidemiology of virulence.” Evolution 67 (4): 921–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alter, G. (2004) “Height, frailty, and the standard of living: Modelling the effects of diet and disease on declining mortality and increasing height.” Population Studies 58 (3): 265–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anonymous (1874) “New Zealand: Sickness among immigrants.” Advocate, March 21.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1875) “Fences consumed by measles.” Melbourne Punch, June 10.Google Scholar
Appleby, A. B. (1975) “Nutrition and disease: The case of London 1550–1750.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 6 (1): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barkin, R. M. (1975) “Measles mortality: Analysis of the primary cause of death.” American Journal of Diseases of Children 129 (3): 307–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bartlett, M. S. (1960) “The critical community size for measles in the United States.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A (General) 123 (1): 37–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bate, W. (1988) Victorian Gold Rushes. Penguin.Google Scholar
Blainey, G. (2006) A History of Victoria. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bosch, A., Giske-Biesbroek, A., Trzcinski, K., Sanders, E. A., and Bogaert, D. (2013) “Viral and bacterial interactions in the upper respiratory tract.” PLoS Pathogens 9 (1): 1–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bunce, R. (1877) “City Council.” Ballarat Star, April 17.Google Scholar
Burserius de Kanifeld, J. B. (1801) The Institutions of the Practice of Medicine, trans. W. C. Brown. Cadell and Davies.Google Scholar
Butlin, N. G. (1964) Investment in Australian Economic Development, 1861–1900. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, J. (2002) Invisible Invaders: Smallpox and Other Diseases in Aboriginal Australia 1780–1880. Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Coleman, S. (2015) “The historical association between measles and pertussis: A case of immune suppression?” SAGE Open Medicine (3): 1–6.Google ScholarPubMed
Coleman, S. (2016) “The association between varicella (chickenpox) and group A streptococcus infections in historical perspective.” SAGE Open Medicine (4): 1–9.Google ScholarPubMed
Creighton, C. (1894) History of Epidemics. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
de Vries, R. D., McQuaid, S., Amerongen, G. V., Yüksel, S., Verburg, R. J., Osterhaus, A. D. M. E., Duprex, W. P., and Swart, R. L. (2012) “Measles immune suppression: Lessons from the macaque model.” PLoS Pathogens 8 (8): 1–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeCosta, C. M. (2002) “‘The contagiousness of childbed fever’: A short history of puerperal sepsis and its treatment.” Medical Journal of Australia 177 (11/12): 668–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Del Mar, C., and Murray, S. (2006) The Royal Australian Collage of General Practitioners: Complete Home Medical Guide. Dorling Kindersley.Google Scholar
Denny, F. W. (2000) “History of haemolytic streptococci and associated diseases,” in Stevens, D. L. and Kaplan, E. L. (eds.) Streptococcal Infections: Clinical Aspects, Microbiology, and Molecular Pathogenesis. Oxford University Press: 1–8.Google Scholar
Duncan, C., Duncan, S., and Scott, S. (1996) “The dynamics of scarlet fever epidemics in England and Wales in the nineteenth century.” Epidemiology and Infection 177 (3): 493–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furuse, Y., Suzuki, A., and Oshitani, H. (2010) “Origin of measles virus: Divergence from rinderpest virus between the eleventh and twelfth centuries.” Virology Journal 7 (52): 1–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia, J. J. (2010) “Differential diagnosis of viral exanthemas.” The Open Vaccine Journal (3): 65–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaworzewska, E., and Colman, G. (1988) “Changes in the pattern of infection caused by Streptococcus pyogenes .” Epidemiology and Infection (100): 257–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hahm, B. (2009) “Hostile communication of measles virus with host innate immunity and dendritic cells,” in Griffin, D. E., and Oldstone, M. B. (eds.) Measles: Pathogenesis and Control. Springer: 271–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hahn, R. G., Knox, L. M., and Forman, T. A. (2005) “Evaluation of poststreptococcal illness.” American Family Physician 71 (10): 1949–54.Google ScholarPubMed
Hardy, A. (1993) The Epidemic Streets: Infectious Disease and the Rise of Preventive Medicine, 1856–1900. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoy, W. E., White, A.V., Dowling, A., Sharma, S. K., Bloomfield, H. T., Swanson, C. E., Mathews, J. D., and McCredie, D. A. (2012) “Post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis is a strong risk factor for chronic kidney disease in later life.” Kidney International (81): 1026–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hurren, E. T. (2005) “Poor Law versus public health: Diphtheria, sanitary reform, and the ‘crusade’ against outdoor relief, 1870–1900.” Social History of Medicine 18 (3): 399–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, R., and Bridge, H. (1987) “Housing,” in Vamplew, W. (ed.) Australians: Historical Statistics. Fairfax, Syme and Weldon Associates: 347–61.Google Scholar
Karp, C. L., Wysocka, M., Wahl, L. M., Ahearn, J. M., Cuomo, P. J., Sherry, B., Trinchieri, G., and Griffin, D. E. (1996) “Mechanism of suppression of cell-mediated immunity by measles virus.” Science (273): 228–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katz, A. R., and Morens, D. M. (1992) “Severe streptococcal infections in historical perspective.” Clinical Infectious Diseases 14 (1): 298–307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim-Farley, R. J. (2003) “Measles,” in Kiple, K. F. (ed.) The Cambridge Historical Dictionary of Disease. Cambridge University Press: 211–14.Google Scholar
Larson, D. M. (2003) “Glomerulonephritis (Bright’s disease),” in Kiple, K. F. (ed.) The Cambridge Historical Dictionary of Disease. Cambridge University Press: 144–46.Google Scholar
Leboffe, M. J., and Pierce, B. E. (2005) A Photographic Atlas for the Microbiological Laboratory, 3rd ed. Morton Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Livi-Bacci, M. (1991) Population and Nutrition. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynskey, N. N., Jauneikaite, E., Kwong Li, H., Zhi, X., Turner, C. E., Mosavie, M., Pearson, M., Asai, M., Lobkowicz, L., Chow, J. Y., Parkhill, J., Lamagni, T., Chalker, V. J., and Sriskandan, S. (2019) “Emergence of dominant toxigenic M1T1 Streptococcus pyogenes clone during increased scarlet fever activity in England: A population-based molecular epidemiological study.” Lancet Infectious Diseases (19): 1209–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maglen, K. (2005) “A world apart: Geography, Australian quarantine, and the mother country.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 60 (2): 196–217.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mathews, J. D. (2005) “Streptococcal disease and the host parasite relationship, Invited Keynote Address,” in Sriprakash, K. (ed.) Proceedings of the XVIth Lancefield International Symposium: 3–13.Google Scholar
McKeown, T. (1976) The Modern Rise of Population. Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
McShan, W. M., and Ferretti, J. J. (1997) “Genetic diversity in temperate bacteriophages of Streptococcus pyogenes: Identification of a second attachment site for phages carrying the erythrogenic toxin A gene.” Journal of Bacteriology 179 (20): 6509–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mina, M. J., Kula, T., Leng, Y., Li, M., de Vries, R. D., Knip, M., Siljander, H., Rewers, M., Choy, D. F., Wilson, M. S., Larman, H. B., Nelson, A. N., Griffin, D. E., de Swart, R. K., and Elledge, S. J. (2019) “Measles virus infection diminishes preexisting antibodies that offer protection from other pathogens.” Science 366 (6465): 599–606.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mina, M. J., Metcalf, C. J., Swart, R. L., Osterhaus, A., and Grenfell, B. T. (2015) “Long-term measles-induced immunomodulation increases overall childhood infectious disease mortality.” Science 348 (6235): 694–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moses, A. E. Hidalgo-Grass, C. Dan-Goor, M. Jaffe, J. Shetzigovsky, I. Ravins, M. Korenman, Z. Cohen-Poradosu, R. and Nir-Paz, R. (2003) “emm typing of M nontypeable invasive group A Streptococcal isolates in Israel.” Journal of Clinical Microbiology 41 (10): 4655–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musser, J. M., Kapur, V., Kanjilal, S., Shah, U., Musher, D. M., Barg, N. L., Johnston, K. H., Schlievert, P. M., Henrichsen, J., Gerlach, D., Rakita, R. M., Tanna, A., Cookson, B. D., and Huang, J. C. (1993) “Geographic and temporal distribution and molecular characterization of two highly pathogenic clones of Streptococcus pyogenes expressing allelic variants of pyrogenic exotoxin A (scarlet fever toxin).” The Journal of Infectious Diseases 167 (2): 337–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Noori, N., and Rohani, P. (2019) “Quantifying the consequences of measles-induced immune modulation for whooping cough epidemiology.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 374: 20180270.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parish, J. M. (2004) “An analysis of the 1875–1877 scarlet fever epidemic of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.” PhD diss., University of Missouri-Columbia.Google Scholar
Petrova, V. N., Sawatsky, B., Han, A. X., Laksono, B. M., Walz, L., Parker, E., Pieper, K., Anderson, C. A., de Vries, R. D., Lanzavecchia, A., Kellam, P., von Messling, V., de Swart, R. L., and Russell, C. A. (2019) “Incomplete genetic reconstitution of B cell pools contributes to prolonged immunosuppression after measles.” Science Immunology 4(41): eaay6125. https://doi:10.1126/sciimmunol.aay6125 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porter, R. (1999) The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Mankind from Antiquity to Present. Fontana Press.Google Scholar
Ratepayer (1875) “Scarlet Fever.” Argus, October 11.Google Scholar
Roberts, P. (2006) “Gold fever. Disease and its cultural relationship: A case study on the development of the colony of Victoria, 1950 to 1900.” MA thesis, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Roberts, P. (2013) “A rose by any other name: Historical epidemiology in late colonial and early modern Victoria (1853–c.1930).” PhD diss., The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Roberts, P. (2014) “Diagnosis as an artefact: A case study to determine the meaning of ‘ague’ and ‘remittent fever’ in nineteenth century Victoria.” The Artefact (37): 3–17.Google Scholar
Rohani, P., Green, C., Mantilla-Beniers, N., and Grenfell, B. (2003) “Ecological interference between fatal diseases.” Nature (422): 885–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rolleston, J. (1928) “The history of scarlet fever.” The British Medical Journal 2 (3542): 926–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schneider-Schaulies, S., and Schneider-Schaulies, J. (2009) “Measles virus-induced immunosuppression,” in Griffin, D. E. and Oldstone, M. B. (eds.) Measles: Pathogenesis and Control. Springer: 243–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smallman-Raynor, M., and Cliff, A. D. (2013) “Epidemics in semi-isolated communities: Statistical perspectives on acute childhood diseases in English public boarding schools, 1930–1939.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A 176 (2): 321–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, F. (1990) The People’s Health, 1830–1910. Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Squire, W. (1882a) “Measles,” in Quain, R. (ed.) A Dictionary of Medicine Including General Pathology, General Therapeutics, Hygiene, and the Diseases Peculiar to Women and Children. Longmans, Green and Co.: 924–29.Google Scholar
Squire, W. (1882b) “Scarlet fever,” in Quain, R. (ed.) A Dictionary of Medicine Including General Pathology, General Therapeutics, Hygiene, and the Diseases Peculiar to Women and Children. Longmans, Green and Co.: 1387–94.Google Scholar
Stewart, T. G. (1882) “Bright’s disease,” in Quain, R. (ed.) A Dictionary of Medicine Including Pathology, General Therapeutics, Hygiene, and the Diseases Peculiar to Women and Children. Longmans, Green and Co.: 174–82.Google Scholar
Swedlund, A. C., and Donta, A. K. (2003) “Scarlet fever epidemics of the nineteenth century: A case of evolved pathogenic resistance,” in Herring, D. A. and Swedlund, A. (eds.) Human Biologists in the Archives: Demography, Health, Nutrition and Genetics in Historical Populations. Cambridge University Press: 159–77.Google Scholar
Szreter, S. (1988) “The importance of social intervention in Britain’s mortality decline c.1850–1914: A reinterpretation of the role of public health.” Social History of Medicine 1 (1): 1–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson (1877) “Contagious diseases.” Bacchus Marsh Express, May 19.Google Scholar
U.S. National Library of Medicine (2020) Medlineplus. www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/encyclopedia.html (accessed July 10).Google Scholar
Walker, M. J., Barnett, T. C., McArthur, J. D., Cole, J. N., Gillen, C. M., Henningham, A., Sriprakash, K. S., Sanderson-Smith, M. L., and Nizhet, V. (2014) “Disease manifestations and pathogenic mechanisms of group A Streptococcus.” Clinical Microbiology Reviews 27 (2): 264–301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Warrack, J. (1918) “The differential diagnosis of scarlet fever, measles and rubella.” British Medical Journal 2 (3018): 486–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
West-Ford, F. (1876) “Treatment of scarlet fever.” Australasian, January 1.Google Scholar
Wilcox, B. A., and Gubler, D. J. (2005) “Disease ecology and the global emergence of zoonotic pathogens.” Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine 10 (5): 263–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilks, D., Farrington, M., and Rubenstein, D. (1995) The Infectious Diseases Manual. Blackwell Science Ltd.Google Scholar
Wilson, M. McNab, and R. Henderson, B. (2002) Bacterial Disease Mechanisms: An Introduction to Cellular Microbiology. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woods, R., and Shelton, N. (1997) An Atlas of Victorian Mortality. Liverpool University Press.Google Scholar
Zhu, L., Olsen, R. J., Nasser, W., Beres, S. B., Vuopio, J., Kristinsson, K. G., Gottfredsson, M., Porter, A. R., DeLeo, F. R., and Musser, J. M. (2015) “A molecular trigger for intercontinental epidemics of group A Streptococcus.” The Journal of Clinical Investigation 125 (9): 3545–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed